Agent Update Blog

Rule Number 1 – Get the basics right, starting with your own website

The starting point is to ensure you get your own website right. This should be easy but all too often estate agents get it wrong. The basics are really simple: make sure your website reflects your brand; your navigation is clear; that content is grouped into areas which make sense; and that contacting you via email or phone is really, really easy (TIP: put your phone number on your homepage). The biggest mistake we see is estate agents thinking from their ‘Business Out’ rather than ‘Customer In’. By that we mean you need to think about the online experience from your customer’s point of view rather than your own. Remember that you serve two distinct market segments: people with properties to let or sell; and people who want to buy or rent. They have different points of view and different needs. The first group are most interested in what you can offer them and why they should consider you. The second group are interested in looking at properties. Too many estate agents simply cater for the second group, despite the fact it is the first that are the lifeblood of an agency. So be sure you have considered what you want each group to experience, to know and to do when they visit your site and build it accordingly.

Rule Number 2 – Put special emphasis on vendors and landlords

We all know that without instructions it is very difficult to build a successful agency. So why do so many estate agents completely ignore vendors and landlords when it comes to their websites? A big mistake some agents make is getting vendors as far as their home page and then not telling them what to do or where to go. There’s no point spending money to send people to your site and then not having a section for them. It’s a simple error, yet one we see repeated time and time again. Great estate agents are the ones who have specific sections for vendors and landlords, sections that sell their service, that explain why their agency is different, that explain the selling or letting process and that contain testimonials and recent sales information. These sections have to be easy to find, constantly updated and allow requests for valuations to be as simple as possible.

Rule Number 3 – Advertise where people are looking

It is very easy for estate agents to be distracted by the plethora of sites that seem to be launching every other week. The most important thing for estate agents to remember is that they need to be where the largest groups of customers are looking – and that is on a selection of the big four major property portals (TIP: The average UK agent is now on just under 2 portals so for maximum national presence use propertyfinder.com or Rightmove) or on Google. Focusing on other smaller property portals is a waste of time and effort. They simply don’t have the traffic and your vendors don’t know or care what they offer so they won’t differentiate you at the point of instruction. Look at the major property websites and choose a selection of the ones that give you the most traffic. Don’t make the mistake of only picking one portal, they all have different audiences so choose a couple.

Rule Number 4 – The internet also builds brand, so have a separate online budget for it

Many estate agents make the mistake of thinking that the internet is only good for advertising property listings and it doesn’t build brand awareness. This is a fundamental mistake. In all other major industries marketers have realised the power of the internet in building brand. Over 1 billion pounds was spent last year on the internet by brand marketers in the UK, so it is important that estate agents get on board. Sites like propertyfinder.com offer agents an ability to build their brands and ‘own’ their area by choosing from a range of brand building products such as the guaranteed top spot or branded banner advertising, both of which are offered to one estate agent per area. Successful estate agents then use brand ads to specifically target vendors and landlords. These tools significantly boost an agent’s profile and the leads and traffic to an estate agents website.

Rule Number 5 – Stand out from the crowd

One of the challenges of the internet in the past is that it has been all vanilla, vanilla, vanilla, making it difficult for estate agents to stand out from competitors. However this has now all changed. We’re now seeing bigger, more creatively powerful ads. We’re seeing new positions being created, such as Featured Properties. We’re also seeing a greater use of what’s known as ‘Rich Media’ and Flash ads, which basically means harnessing all the movement which is available online to make your ads stand out even more. Successful estate agents understand the importance of standing out online, just as they do offline. The key is most of these products are exclusive to one agent per area so make sure you don’t delay too long or you’ll miss the boat completely.

Rule Number 6 - Quality, quality quality in everything. Why do estate agents spend hours reviewing their print advertising and no time at all reviewing the quality of their online ads?

Whether it’s a website, an ad or simply the way we interact online, quality is absolutely vital. Remember, if your website has errors on it, if your photos are non existent or poor quality, if your descriptions are abbreviated or pages in length, it all reflects on your brand and your business. These days customers will react spectacularly well to a company that offers them a great online experience, one that is high quality throughout. But the opposite is also true: treat customers to a poor experience i.e. no photos or only one photo, poor quality images, poor descriptions and they not only remember it, they also tell their friends. Remember, in today’s age the majority of vendors and landlords go online and pretend to be buyers or tenants to check you out before they call, so make sure you get the quality right.

Rule Number 7 – Actively manage your online adverts and your leads

With the internet you can – and you should – constantly change and update your ads. For example why not change photographs to attract new buyers or use some of the new ad spots that let you feature specific properties for short periods of time. It’s also vital that you track the success of your marketing activity – online and offline. That means checking the sources of your enquiry. Estate agents consistently spend substantial sums on print advertising and yet in almost every case study online continually dominates the results when it comes to enquiries. So track what works and shift your spend accordingly. The simplest thing to do is appoint someone within the office to actively track and manage all of your leads (right through to completion) and you’ll soon get a feel for where you should be spending your marketing dollars.

Rule 8 – Make sure your team knows how your online strategy makes you different. It’s all too easy to delegate online activity to the resident ‘geek’.

This is a critical error. Our view is that the successful estate agencies are those that educate and train every single person in their business on how to use the web. It is everybody’s job to continually monitor the quality of your advertising. It is everybody’s responsibility to actively manage listings and leads. It’s everyone’s job to understand the different property portals and how they can differentiate you from your customers, particularly for your sales people at the point of instruction. 

These are the 8 Golden Rules. They’re not exhaustive, and they won’t necessarily turn everyone into an internet marketing guru overnight. But they do work. They’ve worked for many estate agents in London and Australia. And they’ll more than likely work for you.